Clems unveils first Hungry Jack’s work
Clemenger BBDO’s first work for new client Hungry Jack’s has been launched.
Clems Sydney won the account in December after a competitive pitch including incumbent MJW.
The first campaign sees office staff deciding between types of chicken burger by spinning a colleague in a chair.
Under MJW, Hungry Jack’s ads tended to be better known for their quantity rather than quality.
The new ads retain Hungry Jack’s’ long-standing “The burgers are better” positioning.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Massive leap forward from where they were.
The advertising used to drag that brand backwards (as the stores had been revamped and menu improved a bit)… but looks like that’s going to change.
Smart client.
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Wow. Someone feeling like they’re going to throw up BEFORE eating at Hungry Jacks. There’s a twist!
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Why don’t burger ads ever have any real insight into why people buy them and when?
I don’t know anyone who works in an office that would go out of their way to get Hungry Jacks for lunch…tradies, sales people, taxi drivers, council workers, cops, people in retail, the unemployed…maybe it’s a different matter.
The only time you might eat it is when you are on the run, are time poor and when there is not much choice i.e. when it’s convenient. This might be between back-to- back meetings, or when you are out and about and there is no time to find a lunch place and sit down, or you strike a HJ’s on your journey and just pull into the store or Drive Thru…
After a really big night out before you pour yourself into a taxi I must admit it is always tempting, and I have succumbed on many an occasion or the next day to quell the last remnants of that nasty hangover.
There is heaps of territory here in these meal moments alone, so I can’t understand why the makers of these ads can never get it right?
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Ironically with the guy spinning in the chair, it’s exactly how you feel after you’ve eaten Hungry Jacks. And I’m also just wondering how long it will take someone with nothing better to do to complain that this portrays office bullying. Will this ad make me go to Hungry Jacks? Nope. Lion Nathan is responsible for that.
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Rob da Bank – I work in an office and if there were a HJs near by I would treat myself every now and then to one of their burgers.
And perhaps the reason why they’re not targeting tradies and drunks is because they don’t need to – you said it yourself, you already succumb to the temptation when you’ve had a few too many brews.
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@Rob. Why preach to the converted?
This is bringing occasionality (I hate that word) to the younger, male, office worker.
That is the difference between your current market and your market opportunity…
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Man. I feel like a burger.
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@Rob da Bank – I work in an office and I often grab a Maccas for lunch.
Not just when I’m hungover, drunk, in a hurry. But when I’m hungry, because I like it. There’s no HJs as near to my office, but if there was, I’d probably buy that too
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awesome………………crap………….awesome…………crap…………..awesome……………crapawesomely crap
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AdGrunt my friend, HJ’s need to target the converted because they are competing with Micka D’s and those other crap Fast Food joints for the mighty Bogan Dollar.
I see little reason for targeting office bound doosh bags.
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I look at that ad and just feel ill watching the bloke spin around. That right there doesn’t put me in a hungry frame of mind
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The ads aren’t better at Clemenger Sydney.
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@Hungry Jacks, don’t try to be different, differentiation for you just pushes you further away from the fast foods market and into some non existen market inhabited by non existent molten men who are aroused by fire.
@Tom. Agree
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I’m dizzy now….
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@AdGrunt.
Do you really think this new HJ’s ad, depicting office workers spinning around on their chairs, is going to motivate the non regulars (the market opportunity you speak of) to go to down to Hungry Jacks for lunch?
…now unless I drink beer at breakfast, noon and again at night – it aint happening.
The idea should be getting your current market (yes the converted) to frequent the place more often. That is much easier to do than attracting a new ‘market opportunity’. Converting new customers is terribly difficult throughs ads alone.
Do you think M selections got people who drive Rolls Royce’s through the drive through at McDonald’s with their fancy Spanish onions?
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@Rob – have you been to a fast food place in the CBD at lunch time?? Plenty of office workers in there. But I’m sure there’s no pleasing you – if they showed tradies in their ads then you’d probably complain that they were unoriginal, or stereotyping people.
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best thing HJs have going for them is the burgers are better line. don’t think the new ads are trying to reposition, just more of the same juvenile humour, which is fine if it’s working for them.
agree with the commenters arguing for increasing frequency from existing loyal customers, rather than the far more expensive idea of trying to convert non-customers. Some marketers spend way too much time trying to fix what ain’t broke. Take a position and try to own it – consistency and focus are key (not diluting the message to appeal to everyone)
always begs the question about why the account moved in the first place if the new agency serving up more of the same – service, costs, itchy feet, who knows
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what happened to the flame grilled burger porn sequence?
surely that was the only reason you would ever choose HJs over Maccas (apart from convenience/store location).
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I think the pacing of the ad needs to be looked at a little more closely. The lack of momentum doesn’t inspire engagement with the story. I say get the editing team to work and cut this baby up.
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I laughed so hard. This is awesome.
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Absolutely craps on the old ads. And honestly it’s probably better than every fast food ad on Australian telly at the moment.
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+1 to Stacey’s comment: Fast food outlets – including HJ – in the CBD are slammed busy at lunch. Office workers are people, too, and people love fast food.
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Good to see the Clems people showing their support by posting all the positive comments… particularly anonymous @ 8.26am.. The ad itself is remarkably reminiscent of their previous ads…Maybe the chair spin was how HJ’s chose the agency
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@Tom
No one is denying they might be busy.
But I dont think there is a fast Food outlet anywhere near the heart of Collins Street where the real business is conducted in the Melbourne CBD.
Bourke Street and Elizabeth St have a few, but these are on public transport thoroughfares and cater for tourists, students, retailers, shoppers and the passing through crowd I would have thought.
Who would want their spiffy Hugo Boss suit and Herringbone tie sullied by a whopper’s special sauce.
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Much better than the tripe MJW ever churned out. MJWho?
“The ads are better at Clems”
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@Rob D B
The ad objective appears to be “increase the awareness and (re)consideration of HJ amongst young male office workers, highlighting our new chicken specials.”
Some of these young blades currently, like you, predominantly associate HJ with convenience – after boozy night; the morning after; convenient lardy refuel. *This is their default behaviour* They already do this and will continue to do so, so this ad gets them to reconsider HJ for lunch.
Some of these young blades may be getting the Chicken Scnitzel Roll from their local cafe. They hope to get these guys to consider going to HJ instead of said local cafe – based on the known attributes of speed, convenience, taste and price.
It’s that transparent.
I have no idea what you’re blathering on about with Hugo Boss and Herringbone. I hope you aren’t in any significant strategic role.
As stated before, I’ve nothing to do with any fast food organisation.
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I love it, seriously thought it was a Burger King re-dubb from the states. So much better than the corny old stuff.
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@ AdGrunt
Once again, do you really believe this ad, depicting office workers spinning around on their chairs, is going to motivate and influence the non regulars (the market opportunity you speak of) to go down to HJ’s for lunch?
Personally I wouldn’t eat HJ’s for lunch unless I was terribly hungry, falling down drunk, and left with little option but to stumble through their conveniently automatic opening doors so I could to request one of their flamed grease burgers.
Its not even in the consideration set for lunch, as 1. Its unhealthy and taste is not comparable to non-fast food food (not a concern when inebriated and given limited choice), 2. The cue and sit down restuarant experience is awful, 3. It only hits the spot when inebriated, 4. It’s not a convenient option in Collins St, 5. My disposable inome allows me a much greater array of choice, 6. Price is not the only driver in the purchase decison, 7. Neither is speed when you have at least an hour for lunch.
This ad is not going to change that behaviour for us young blade office workers at all. I would like to understand how this ad proposes to deliver that precise action?
An old blade that has spun himself a few too many times like yourself should know better.
Fast food is conveneice, and the day when Cafe Vue starts serving up their nosh in a drive through, I’ll give you a job.
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Ah. R d B. That fatal mail-boy mistake of mistaking yourself for the campaign audience.
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@Rob DB.. Just because it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work for the market at all. I work in an office.. I may not be a young male, but I’m a young female. I’ve worked in the CBD at a few locations.. Exhibition St, Burke St, Elizabeth St… but never Collins – because not all businesses are on Collins! And just because I work in an office doesn’t mean I’m incredibly wealthy and only eat expensive meals. I don’t eat HJs a lot, but it’s not out of the question. But I do have a young male friend who works on Collins, in an office and earns quite a bit. He often goes to Maccas, HJs, Grill’d, Subway and many other fast food places for lunch because he likes them and would rather not pay $15 for a sandwich he could have made in the staff kitchen.
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Not hard to wind up you lot up on here is it?
Nonetheless – working on a floor of 150+ people, I have never once seen anybody in the office with a bag of Mc Donald’s or Hungry Jacks under their arm, nor in the lift or walking down said Collins Street.
But I get that not all office peeps are the same or like me – geesh.
So of course there a few who no doubt like fast food, and of course despite my own behaviour and observations there are people in offices that buy HJ’s, I just don’t believe that this market opportunity is the best way to harness their ad spend.
This ad in my view will not change or influence behaviour – to claim that is typical adman waffle.
Hungry Jack’s should stick to their knitting and keep re-inforcing their proposition and expanding the range to suit more occasions that fit their target market.
But you keep plugging away AdGrunt with your prehistoric AIDA model from 1898 (thats true actually – look it up), and I’ll stick to questioning conventional wisdom.
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R d b. Look up Dunning Kruger syndrome, then look in the mirror. You haven’t challenged anything here except our patience.
Tip – using your individual experience as a proxy for a whole market marks you out as a real novice.
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Ad Grunt
produce a modicum of evidence to disprove my point, except the usual guff about awareness leading to action, and you might enlighten us all.
Your hackneyed smugness is no dount a sympton of your own cognitive biases – permitting yourself to own the monopoly of all marketing wisdom.
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This is enjoyable – keep going fellas
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Marked improvement from MJW’s stuff – not. Same old same old it seems, however the client hasn’t changed, just the agency. Nice to see the brand hasn’t moved too far if that was the aim.
Mind you have a close look at the end burger shots, they look like roadkill. One thing from a production side of things is that MJW’s art directors and the production company (whoever they were) did a good job on food. Like to see the POS stuff regarding imagery before commenting further.
Finishing is just as important as idea on these retail accounts as you can always see where the budget got spent.
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Just as a postscript to Rob’s “… I dont think there is a fast Food outlet anywhere near the heart of Collins Street…”, I can think of two McDonalds on Collins Street in Melbourne, one at both ends. What I’m not sure of is exactly where the street’s heart is…?
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R d B: Why would I care to disprove what you’ve said? Be a bit more defensive, why not.
You may be right, but present flimsy, contradictory, anecdotal personal view as support. Good on you. But that flimsiness really shows through.
I’m explaining what they’re trying to do, without judging its effectiveness, which may be very poor.
Do you see the difference?
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@ possum
To be brutally honest and I’m sorry to burst your bubble sweety but I really don’t think it’s wise setting the past work as a benchmark for food styling. When the stills were obviously photoshopped beyond recognition and the live action stuff looked cold and extremely unappetizing. No disrepstect intended, but I actually think these Burgers look far more realistic now than ever before. I’m a producer at a competitive agency to both MJW and Clems, I know who the stylist was and she really is the best in the Business.
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M&CS….No “disrepstect” to you but a stylist is not in evidence in this or previous.
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I think the burger is not especially a meal-time option but a snack for unforseen hunger at odd times . .
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I feel sorry for MJW – I used to love working with their MD on that account. The HJ MM and MJW MD get (got?) along like a house on fire – I wonder if there’s been any fallout?
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